XCOM-style games are notoriously difficult, and Warhammer 40K: Chaos Gate Daemonhunters certainly stays true to that idea. The game is immensely difficult, especially in the early stages when you don’t have as many options or upgrades to choose from. You’ll likely struggle through the first few hours, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
This Daemonhunters tips and tricks guide is meant to give you a few essential pointers so that you have the greatest advantage possible early on.
Build the Augmentation Chamber First
After the tutorial, you’ll be let loose into the universe of Chaos Gate. At this point, you can start improving your ship, the Baleful Edict. There are a variety of facilities you can build, and each has its own benefits. However, you’ll need Servitors to build anything. That’s where the Augmentation Chamber comes in.
Building this facility will give you one Servitor every 10 days, ensuring you have a constant supply streaming in. This ensures that you’ll always have Servitors to start a new project; you won’t have to wait until you complete another mission to get a reward. Considering the huge benefits ship upgrades grant, the Augmentation Chamber is vital, as you’ll want to build everything as quickly as possible.
Always Try to Collect Bloom Seeds
Bloom Seeds are easily the most important item in Chaos Gate. At first, the only way you can get them is by killing Seed Carriers with critical hits. That sounds difficult, but there are a few tricks you can use to make this much easier.
Invest in the Hammerhand ability, which guarantees a critical hit for 2WP and 1AP. Only Justicars and Interceptors can learn the skill, but it basically ensures you’ll always get a seed when you take down a carrier.
Apothecaries have surgeon skills that can extract the seeds without causing damage, but you’ll need to play a bit to get enough AP to unlock them. At the same time, you’ll eventually unlock the ability to use Servo Skulls to harvest seeds. These don’t cost anything to use, and Apothecaries can even carry two at once.
You’ll also want to keep an eye out during missions for plants carrying Bloom Seeds, as you can harvest those on top of defeating enemies.
Finally, you can invest in the Advanced Seed Extraction research, which increases the number of seeds you extract and bumps up the chances of successfully doing so.
Choose Your Research Wisely
On top of building facilities, research is the other main activity you’ll control on the Baleful Edict. Once the Inquisitor arrives, you can spend Bloom Seeds to conduct research (which also takes days to complete). With how limited Blood Seed are, however, you’ll need to prioritize what you do.
The research you should conduct revolves entirely around what kind of playstyle you’re going for. If you want to go heavy on abilities, invest in research that lowers the amount of Warp Surge you build. On the other hand, you can invest in Strategems that allow you to wield powerful support abilities.
You’ll only have a few research options at first, but your options quickly expand, so make sure you’re checking what each one does and what might support your playstyle best.
Have at Least Two Squads of Knights
You should have at least two full squads of knights, if not more, at all times. Your knights are going to get injured during missions, and in some cases even killed. The problem is that injured knights go into battle with less health, meaning you have a handicap right off the bat.
Because of this, you should have multiple squads that you can switch in and out between missions. There’s nothing worse than not being able to deploy four knights into a mission because someone is too injured. Of course, keep in mind that you’ll need to outfit and improve all of these knights, so don’t neglect one squad over the other.
Use the Environment to Your Advantage
You already have a lot of options for combat with just your squad, but it’s also important to pay attention to the environment and look out for things you can take advantage of. Certain objects have markers on them, meaning you can interact with them. Statues can be toppled over onto enemies, barrels can explode to cause extra damage, and you can even punch holes in walls to open up new paths.
You’ll constantly find yourself outnumbered by enemies, so make sure to study the environment and see what you can use to your advantage.
Speed is Paramount in Missions
Missions already throw scores of enemies at you, but things can really take a turn for the worse as you experience Warp Surges. A meter at the top of the screen raises whenever you or an enemy use an ability. Once the meter is full, some random effect procs (although it’s always to your detriment). The first few instances will always be reinforcements, based on how many reinforcements the mission description says the enemy team has.
The longer you take in a mission, the more Warp Surges will stack up, meaning you’ll be at even more of a disadvantage. You must still be careful, but you should aim to complete missions as quickly as possible. Take a look across the map on your first turn and note where the objectives are, then try to plan the shortest path to get there.
Those are some of our essential tips for the latest game in the Warhammer universe. Do you have any? Leave them in the comments below. For even more help and tips, make sure to check out our Warhammer 40K: Chaos Gate Daemonhunters guides hub.
